Jane Hardwicke Collings

Jane Hardwicke Collings

The Bleeding Obvious

I’m just back from the Australian Goddess Conference held in Sydney this month, where I gave two presentations – following is an excerpt from the first one.

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The menstrual cycle as an ‘entity’ is screaming for attention….
Are we paying attention?

The menstrual cycle is the ‘barometer of our wellbeing’, so what is this telling us about the health of women and particularly our maidens?

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has realised that the menstrual cycle is actually an important ‘vital sign’ for the overall health and wellbeing of a woman, particularly young women, Maidens.

Let’s look at what the menstrual cycle, as a vital sign, is telling us on individual and collective level, and what we can do about it.

What’s going on in the body?
Human beings are at the top of the food chain, so we accumulate toxins in our bodies. These come from the foods we eat and how they are grown, as well as water and air pollution. The toxins accumulate in the body and for women, and this results in the body being unable to process oestrogen levels in time to have normal levels for the next menstrual cycle.

The body prioritises fertility over everything and continues to produce oestrogen for each next cycle, causing increasing levels of hormones and the resulting effects.

The liver prioritises metabolising toxins (eg cortisol and alcohol) over oestrogen and so the oestrogen levels remain high. The liver stores excess oestrogen and toxins in fat to metabolise later. Progesterone levels rise to match oestrogen levels to continue the cycle.

Most women have oestrogen dominance plus an overall toxin accumulation. This results in an overloaded liver. Constant low level stress and oestrogen pollution (via urine from women on the Pill and HRT, fertilisers in farming, growth hormones in meat production, and xenoestrogens in BPA plastic) have an overall effect of hormonal disruption.

What is this telling us on individual level ?
Women are experiencing the signs and symptoms of the effects of the polluted environment – as without, so within, the stresses of a modern lifestyle, the lack of prioritising self care required for a healthy menstrual cycle, internalised patriarchy, Red Thread wounds…

The worse you feel, the worse you treat yourself. Self-care deteriorates. You make worst choices, and in general, we are taught to mask the problem.

As a vital sign, the menstrual cycle in its pathology tells us about the conditions of our liver and the results of what we eat and drink, our sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise, our stress levels, our burdens, the emotional load on women and the bioaccumulation of that.

What is this telling us on collective level ?
As a vital sign, the menstrual cycle in its pathology points to internalised misogyny, ie menstrual taboo at play, global pollution, stress, trauma, lack of validation of self-care practices, poor farming practices and undervaluing true nourishment and what needs to happen to attain that, and a fundamental disconnection from our body and that of the Earth.

There is a lack of prioritisation of women’s health care, reinforcing the ‘suffer in silence’ motif, and pathologising the feminine experience. The message is loud and clear: “there’s something wrong with you.”

The collective feminine pain body expresses itself through the menstural cycle of each one of us – we are all interconnected, with each other and with the Earth.

It’s time to take back the wisdom and power of our body!

What can we do about it?
The ‘treatment’ is to Listen! ”My body ‘s telling me something, what is it?”

Use biofeedback and see the effects of increasing meditation practice as you calm down your nervous system and reduce cortisol.

Exercise helps remove oestrogen and makes the body more efficient as the body deals with cortisol first, then oestrogen.

Watch your diet, eat organic food to reduce the toxins you bring it into your body.

Look into the supplements you can take and the foods to eat to support your liver. And FYI – The Pill depletes vitamin B6.

Plan what you will be doing when you are bleeding so you can rest and care for yourself to reduce your stress and toxin intake, and therefore enable your liver to process the oestrogen – take control back of your hormonal and biological process, rather than being hijacked by our modern lifestyle.